1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and a device for embedding connection elements in a wall, preferably a piece of sheet metal.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
It is necessary in autobody construction, container construction, pipeline construction, hydraulic control construction, and instrument panel construction to provide components, formed as hollow bodies and sheet-metal shaped parts, with connection elements. This is traditionally performed by welding nuts or screwing in autobody screws or car-body screws. This requires welding devices, screwing devices, and handling devices and a plurality of operating steps. It has therefore been proposed to combine the operating steps of the deformation of the components and the embedding of the connection elements.
In a process described in the German printed patent document DE 195 08 632 A1, a connection element is embedded simultaneously during the internal-high-pressure deformation of a sheet metal, in that the sheet metal not only applies itself to the engraving but also embraces the connection element based on the influence of the internal high pressure. This requires an expensive operating-cycle control in addition to good knowledge of the flow properties if one does not want to forgo the high positioning accuracy and the simultaneous embedding of several connection elements.
A further method is known from the European printed patent document EP 0 593 950 A1. This method teaches the forming of a hole surrounded by a collar, wherein a tubular-shaped insert is pressed into the collar and a liquid is introduced into the tubular-shaped structure in order to press the collar against the tubular-shaped insert. This method relates exclusively to the embedding of tubular-shaped reinforcing inserts into tubular-shaped structures, since the punch, required for forming the hole, has to be guided through the reinforcing insert. Other component structures and other connections elements are excluded. For this reason, connections have always to be led back and returned to these tubular-shaped inserts. In cases where this is possible, the additional connections decrease the loading capacity and the reliability of the connections. In other cases, one is still referred to expensive, traditional methods.